More than a year after the State Seal Commission folded without recommending a new design for the state's emblems, a second attempt at drafting a new state seal is off to a tardy start.
Under a measure tacked onto the state budget last summer, the newest iteration of the State Seal Commission was required to hold its first meeting by Oct. 27, 2024, before moving on to tackle a heady to-do list.
Lawmakers voted to give the group a $100,000 budget and tasked it with redesigning the state seal, flag and motto. It must pick three options for each, hold at least three public hearings around the state, then send its final choices back to Gov. Maura Healey by Aug. 28, 2025. The law then directs Healey to file a bill to implement the changes.
But as of Monday, the group's first meeting had still not been scheduled, and its membership was not squared away.
Healey last week picked the commission's two co-chairs — Education Secretary Patrick Tutwiler and Kate Fox, executive director of the Mass. Office of Travel and Tourism — and also added Rhonda Anderson, the western Massachusetts delegate to the state's Commission on Indian Affairs, to the panel.
The governor's office said a complete list of members was not available, so the News Service called around to the other offices that will be appointing personnel to mark up the state seal.
The membership will also include Mary Mahon McCauley, executive director of the Mass. Office on Disability, and Summer Confuorto, the Mass. Cultural Council's traditional arts program officer. Secretary William Galvin's office said the Mass. Historical Commission would probably select its executive director, Brona Simon, and that Galvin would likely place his legislative director, John Rosenberry, on the seal commission.
Mass Humanities and the Commission on Indian Affairs were not able to say Monday who their appointees would be.
David Detmold, who leads ChangeTheMassFlag.com, noted the flag depicts a settler's arm holding a sword over a Native man, with the motto "By sword we seek peace," in Latin.
"This has been so offensive that native leaders in Massachusetts for 50 years have been calling for a change, and the Legislature has had this in front of it for 40 years. And now we are finally moving forward to get this done," Detmold said.
The original State Seal Commission dragged on for nearly three years before disbanding in November 2023 without completing its objectives.
This story contains reporting from NEPM's Nancy Eve Cohen.
